Scott Mckenzie's dtx company and guideline I believe both sell "shooting heads" I'm not sure what exactly they are- So what's the diff between them and scandi lines or skagit lines, or are they the same?
When I was a kid, way back in the day, we fished sinking "shooting heads" for steelhead. They were heavy, sinking heads that we atached to mono. They cated far, but they were klunky beyond all get out, much more it seems to me than scandi. I'm curious if todays shooting heads are the same as back but in a floating head, or if scandi and skag are shooting heads of the day-

Its all relative, I beleive the DTX shooting heads are of the scandi type. But really a shooting head is just that, a head with a seperate running line. The comp stuff has heads in the 70-100ft range with light running line attached behind it.......a shooting head.

So, if a guy cuts his delta off, and adds a loop so he can use a different running line, is it then a shoooting head?
If I'm understanding correctly, this is correct, and a "Shooting head" is any line configured in this manner. I think... A skagit is a shooting head as is a scandi etc ?-

I have the impression that "shooting head" refers to a short head, with a separate, attached running line, intended to be cast with overhead casting technique. It's been that way for nearly a half century, since a few Californian tournament casters introduced them and smoked the competition. No American was thinking about double handed rods then, but the definition fits both single- and double-handed rods equally. A scandi or skagit head with separate running line, intended to be cast with water-anchored, spey casts, shouldn't be called a shooting head.

I have the impression that "shooting head" refers to a short head, with a separate, attached running line, intended to be cast with overhead casting technique. It's been that way for nearly a half century, since a few Californian tournament casters introduced them and smoked the competition. No American was thinking about double handed rods then, but the definition fits both single- and double-handed rods equally. A scandi or skagit head with separate running line, intended to be cast with water-anchored, spey casts, shouldn't be called a shooting head.

I have the impression that "shooting head" refers to a short head, with a separate, attached running line, intended to be cast with overhead casting technique. It's been that way for nearly a half century, since a few Californian tournament casters introduced them and smoked the competition. No American was thinking about double handed rods then, but the definition fits both single- and double-handed rods equally. A scandi or skagit head with separate running line, intended to be cast with water-anchored, spey casts, shouldn't be called a shooting head.

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Mac is correct. Before we dreamed up the terms Scandi and Skagit, there were shooting heads. If they fit into this category, they can be called shooting heads as a general overall term.

Leland, dont you meen that Mac is incorrect? As a general term scandis, skagits, long heads short heads are all shooting heads.

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He's actually correct for the first part but somewhat incorrect on the last. You can call scandis and skagits shooting heads, but loosely. As an aside, it was Jimmy Green who is credited with inventing the shooting head. To solve the need to make long casts, with lines with interchangeable sink rates, to steelhead and salmon in the "Rivers of the Lost Coast."